ONE special ingredient turns a fluffy chocolate cake into the most fabulous dessert, in the words of baking legend Ina Garten.
Adding coffee to the chocolate cake, as well as the buttercream frosting, is the key to Ina’s recipe.
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Dessert-lover Anneta Konstantinides at Insider stepped up to the challenge of making Ina’s beloved chocolate cake.
The dessert, called Beatty’s Chocolate Cake, consists of pretty standard ingredients – except for the key addition of coffee.
The “Barefoot Contessa” star explained that she got the recipe from her friend Michael Grimm after tasting it and begging him to share the secret recipe. Beatty was Grimm’s grandmother.
“This recipe calls for a cup of hot brewed coffee. I always think coffee is really important for chocolate, it makes it taste really chocolatey — and that’s exactly what it does,” Garten said.
Anneta found that the coffee in the cake batter and the buttercream frosting didn’t just add a flavorful kick, but that it made the cake “unbelievably fluffy.”
“The texture truly blew me away,” she wrote.
“I’ve had so many cakes where the filling is just way too dense and chewy, completely distracting from the flavor.
“But Garten’s cake is somehow packed with chocolate and still light as air — a true feat.
“It’s honestly one of the fluffiest cakes I’ve ever had, and that includes store-bought.”
Anneta concluded her review of the cake by saying it’s a “perfect dessert” and that she recommends it for all kinds of events.
If you don’t have time to make a cake from scratch, one baker ranked the tastiest and worst grocery store cakes.
Another professional baker tried the three most popular cake mixes and found that one stood out for its buttery richness.